An ox. Used by Stubbes (1583), Holland (1602), &c. N.E.D. The plural, beeves, occurs in the A.V. of the Bible.
1821. Few places can boast of larger crops [than Deerfield]; and none of finer, fatter beeves.—T. Dwight, ‘Travels,’ ii. 65.
1823. He was busy with his cider and apples, and took me to see his fall stock, consisting of two or three dozen fine fat hogs; about twenty noble beeves, and a large flock of fat sheep.—Mass. Spy, Dec. 3.
1828. So little was the faith of those who knew him, he could not be trusted for a beef.—Richmond Enquirer, Aug. 29, p. 4/2.
1835. Some one, desirous of raising money on one of his cattle, advertises that on a particular day, and at a given place, a first-rate beef will be shot for. [The whole transaction described.]—‘Col. Crockett’s Tour,’ p. 175 (Phila.).
1838. They had come together for the purpose of “shooting a beeve,” as the marksmen have it.—E. Flagg, ‘The Far West,’ ii. 115 (N.Y.).
1842. The young man asked for the mark and brand of a beef which they had just killed.—Petition cited by Mr. Black of Georgia, in the House of Repr., May 24: Cong. Globe, p. 419, App.
1857. “’Pears to me,” said Mice, “dat fool nigger is proud to be a leadin’ of dat big beef.”—D. H. Strother, ‘Virginia Illustrated,’ p. 133 (N.Y.).
1878. Behind these came a beef, driven by soldiers…. The beef was immediately shot at and butchered, and before the animal heat had left the meat, it was impaled in little strips on sticks, bayonets, swords and pocket knives, roasting over the fires.—‘Southern Hist. Soc. Papers,’ vi. 212 (Richmond, Va.).
1885. We watched them at a distance kill and divide the beef.—Mrs. Custer, ‘Boots and Saddles,’ p. 64 (N.Y.).
1904. Late in the afternoon a beef, perhaps more than one, was driven up and shot on the outskirts of the camp, and skinned and flayed on the ground.—J. H. Claiborne, ‘Seventy-Five Years in Old Virginia,’ p. 289.
